Mutant Adaptation
by Cmdr. Gabe E
Summary: PostX1. Senator Kelly survives the mutation, and realizes that he has to live life as a mutant. Will he let Charles, Ororo, and the XMen guide him through it, or will he take matters into his own hands?


NOTE: I've always been interested in the X-Men movies' secondary characters --- Lady Deathstrike, Stryker, Kitty Pride, Lyman, etc. So I thought I'd try my hand on Senator Kelly...

Mutant Adaptation

Post-X1. Senator Kelly survives the mutation, and realizes that he has to live life as a mutant. Will he let Charles, Ororo, and the X-Men guide him through it, or will he take matters into his own hands?

Chapter 1: Evolution

x x x

Once again, they had saved those who hated them. The X-Men had stopped Magneto from transforming the majority of New York's population into mutants -- a process that would inevitably kill those who weren't naturally born with the 'genes'.

Ororo tiredly opened the door to her room. She was fatigued, drained, from the events that occurred for the past few days. She was used to all the duties that came with being an X-Men, but so much has happened in such a short span of time, that she was actually feeling its toll on her.

Magneto's attempt at Liberty Island, the threat on their lives, the brotherhood going against them full force, Rogue and Logan's mishaps, recovering from it all, and the man who died right before her very eyes. She looked at her hand in the dim light of the room. She would never forget what he looked like when he ebbed away, dying, as he squeezed her hand in a futile attempt to hang on to dear life.

She closed her hand into a tight fist. To think that he was once a man who would dare not touch the likes of her, more so be in the same room with mutants without feeling a fiber of enmity and remorse. And yet it was 'he' who held on to her right down to his final breath.

Was life truly that ironic? If only Senator Kelly had opened his mind...If only he had given himself a chance to see the truth, then he might not have suffered the fate that was not due him. He was not an evil man. He just feared that which he could not understand.

Ororo sighed. What was done is done. People die. And most of the time, life was unfair. She took off her suit and let it fall carelessly on the floor, leaving nothing but her shorts and tank top on. She was too tired, too exhausted to care. She just wanted to sleep.

She climbed onto the bed and tiredly pulled the covers over her. She closed her eyes and eventually fell into a deep state of comfort. Ororo was about to fall asleep, when...

"Help me."

Her eyes shot open. She heard something. A voice. It was faint, but it was definitely a voice...A man's voice, asking her for help. Before she could make a move, the voice continued.

"Help me, please. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what's happening to me. Please, do something..." His last words faded into nothingness.

Ororo swallowed. She could sense the fear in his voice. Whoever he was, wherever he was, he was scared - and lost. She immediately sat up and looked around. No one was there. Not a sign, or a shadow, or a form to associate the voice with. She reached to her bedside table and turned the lamp on.

"Hello? Is anyone there? Are you still there?" She asked.

No answer. The voice had disappeared completely. It was gone, as if it was never even there.

But Ororo thought otherwise. The voice 'was' there. And whoever it was who was asking for her help still needed it. She stood off the bed and surveyed the room, hoping that the better illumination would reveal the voice's owner. Still, nothing. No one was there but her and her shadow.

Suddenly, something on the floor caught her eye. There were droplets of a liquid-like substance forming on a small area right in front of her. She swore it wasn't there when she first entered the room. Could it have something to do with the voice she just heard?

/ "What?" / She asked herself.

The droplets continued to grow into bigger blobs of liquid until they melded together into a solid mercury-like puddle on the floor. The puddle moved and swirled as if it were alive. It slowly increased in mass, growing higher and taller, like a living sculpture that was molding itself right before her very eyes.

The huge slab of liquid eventually took a shape that was familiar to her. It was of a humanoid shape now. It sprouted arms and legs, hands and feet, until it solidified its entirety into the form of a naked human male. Before Ororo could recognize him, he fell on his knees, hands on the floor and head bowed down. His unruly blond hair hung over his face as he panted. Sweat covered his entire body as his shoulders heaved up and down in utter exhaustion.

Ororo couldn't speak. The only thing she could do was stare at him. She couldn't even explain what just happened. It was almost as if he had been borne from nothingness. The man then lifted his head and looked at her, his face filled with fear and uncertainty.

Her eyes widened in shock. It was him.

"Senator Kelly..." She whispered.

x x x

Clad in a gray sweater and white shorts, Senator Robert Kelly once again found himself in the medical examination facility of the mansion. Suffice to say, he found it unsettling. Not only was that the room where he 'died', but even after what had happened between him and Charles, he still felt uncomfortable in their presence. They were still mutants after all, and he was in their territory.

He exhaled and subtly rubbed his arms. The professor and Jean had just finished performing an overall scan of his body and he was now waiting for the results. He didn't want to admit it, but he was scared. Something just happened to him, and he hoped that whatever it was was finally over. He just wanted to go back to the life he once had. Though now, he wasn't sure if it would ever be the same.

He quietly observed Jean and the professor as the two discussed the results by a set of digital screens. Kelly could do nothing but watch --- and wait. He then noticed Ororo standing by one of the panels. He remembered that it was her, that mutant, who held his hand when he thought he was dying. Despite of who he was, she comforted him when he needed someone to hold on to. A mutant. And now, he couldn't help but wonder if he would ever look at 'them' in the same way again.

"The results are quite --- interesting, Senator." The professor said as he maneuvered his way to Kelly.

"What do you mean, professor? Can you explain what happened to me? Can you explain why I'm still here, why I'm still alive?" He glanced at Ororo. "She saw me die. You know she saw me die. And yet I'm alive, and I'm here, and I'm well. So is it over? What Magneto did to me, is it finally over?" He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

"Senator, at this point in time, there are a lot of things you need to understand. Much needs to be discussed." The professor said calmly. He could sense the agitation in Kelly.

"What? What needs to be discussed? What needs to be explained? I just want to know if it's finally over. I just want to know if I can finally go back to my life."

Charles looked at Kelly, then he looked at Jean. They had a brief moment of silence, then the professor nodded his head and looked at the senator again. Perhaps now was the right time to tell him what had happened, and what was now happening to him.

"When you were first exposed to Erik's machine, your body went into a state of shock. It couldn't handle what it had just been through. Its effects had practically turned your genetic makeup inside out. Your body underwent a process that it was never supposed to go through. Simply put, Senator, it had caused your molecules to destabilize. Your cells couldn't cope with the initial effects of the transformation so they gave in. They needed time. That was when you apparently 'died'."

"So what you're saying is...That I never really died. That --- that whatever happened was just an initial reaction to what 'they' did to me. If that's the case, then that means I survived it. Whatever it was, it's run it's course and it's finally gone, like some kind of sickness."

"True. But I'm afraid it is not that simple in your case." He replied.

"What do you mean? You said my body went into a state of shock, and that it had to recover. And now it's recovered. Frankly speaking, professor, you can't tell me something is wrong because I don't feel anything 'wrong' with me. I feel fine, great...Better than ever, in fact."

"That's because nothing is wrong with you, Senator. In the same context that nothing is wrong with 'us'...With 'all' of 'us'." Jean said.

Robert shot a look at Jean. He didn't like where she was going. She spoke as if she was referring to him as one of 'them'. "I don't like the tone in your voice, Dr. Grey." He said sternly.

"Robert," The professor said, looking at the senator, "When your body rebuilt itself, it had completed its final stage of evolution."

"Evolution? You don't mean..." Kelly asked, looking confused.

"Senator Kelly, we couldn't believe it either, but you were able to survive the transformation process."

Kelly couldn't believe what the professor had just said. "No." Was the only word he could utter. He knew full well what Charles meant. It meant that he was now one of 'them'. He was now a mutant...The very 'species' he was fighting against.

He immediately stood up in protest. There must be some mistake. "No...No, that can't be it. You must have misread something." He said, motioning his hand towards the screens in the room. "I can't be a mutant. It happened once, I know, but it can't be permanent...It can't last forever. That's impossible! It's scientifically not possible! It just can't!" Who was he to say what was scientifically possible or not? He was a politician, not a scientist.

Kelly looked at the three mutants in the room, and cautiously walked back away from them. He felt trapped, suffocated, cornered. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to tell himself that Charles was wrong, but somewhere, deep down inside, he knew that something was different about him. He just couldn't accept it yet, and he didn't know if he ever would.

He glanced at the door. He had to get out of that place, out of that facility, out of that mansion, away from those mutants. Maybe if he stayed away long enough, away from anything that had to do with mutants, he would forget that he was one of them.

"I don't belong here, Charles. You know I don't." He slowly made his way towards the door. "You know this is all some kind of mistake, some kind of misunderstanding. I'm not a mutant. I'm not. I will never be a mutant!" He said firmly.

"It's all right, Senator. There is nothing to fear." Ororo said. She pitied Senator Kelly...Pitied him for his ignorance on what makes a human and what makes a mutant. "Though there are some things about us that makes us different from 'them', that doesn't mean that we aren't human. It doesn't mean that we have to be set apart. We are still a part of 'them', Senator. Don't fear what you have become."

"I'm not listening to any of this anymore! Leave me alone, all of you!" He shouted.

He ran to the door, and pressed some of the buttons on the panel right next to it. The door slid open and he darted out of the room, running as fast as his old and tired feet could carry him. He hoped he could still recall the way out of the underground sector of Xavier's school. It frustrated him how most of the corridors and levels looked alike.

"Will he be all right, professor? I don't think we should have let him go in his current state. He still doesn't know what he's capable of." Jean asked, looking at Ororo and Charles.

"We're a school, Jean. We can't force our students to stay if they don't want to. The senator will seek our guidance once he's ready. For now, he needs time to accept and adjust to his newfound abilities." Charles looked at the door, and hoped that the senator would make the right choice - soon.

x x x

To be continued...


End file.
